I’m sure everybody knows the title is a Latin phrase found in the work of the Roman poet Juvenal from his Satires (Satire VI, lines 347–348). It is literally translated as “Who will guard the guards themselves?”.

I confess I didn’t choose the title for my Editorial and I had to look up the meaning.

All of this is to do with the revelation that the Cayman Islands Football Association (CIFA) is a registered charity.

By 31^st July 2018 all Cayman Islands non-profit organisations (NPO) which solicit contributions from the public needed to register with the Registrar of Non-profit Organisations under the Non-profit Organisations Law, 2017.

Since the deadline date we haven’t heard a peep how many NPO’s that existed before the deadline actually registered and how many didn’t. In other words how many charitable organisations are now no longer in existence?

Is anybody actually checking the people who have been put in charge of administering this totally unnecessary law they are actually executing it?

CIFA does not fall into the category of an NPO.

What is an NPO?

The NPO Law defines a non-profit as including a company or body of persons, whether incorporated or unincorporated, or a trust which is –

(a) established or which identifies itself as established primarily for the promotion of charitable, philanthropic, religious, cultural, educational, social or fraternal purposes, or other activities or programmes for the public benefit or a section of the public in Cayman or elsewhere; and

(b) which solicits contributions from the public or a section of the public in Cayman or elsewhere;

Does it affect all NPOs?

The NPO Law does not apply to charitable or voluntary organizations that are already regulated by a government entity, trusts that are registered under the Banks and Trust Companies Law (2013 Revision) and any other entities that are exempt through an order of Cayman Islands Government in Cabinet (‘Cabinet’). Businesses that operate as charities can be categorized as NPOs, which will allow them to avoid substantial fees.

CIFA is licenced as a charity with all that corruption outstanding and is already regulated by government.

It doesn’t exactly give one confidence in now even more burden being put on these government officials with the new NPO law. They couldn’t find any problems with the information they had been given to them by the old CIFA accounts over many years.

Isn’t then, this new NPO law going to be totally useless in ferreting out all the so called money laundering that has supposedly been going on with all our local NPO’s and the necessity of having this law being put into practice?

The great job the NPO’s were doing with voluntary help is being lost and government will have to bear the burden that means we will. None of which will be run efficiently and the running costs will be enormous.

I have to ask the question again? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? And who will pay for them?

Us, of course.

THANKS: To Solomon Harris for providing me with the information on the new Cayman Non-profit Entities Law.

SOURCE: https://www.solomonharris.com/news-updates/cayman-non-profit-entities-june-2018-registration-deadlines